The series offers a look at how the Chiefs train, team-build, coach and win. It includes behind-the-scenes footage from the 2018 AFC championship game through the NFL’s 2019 regular season. New episodes will debut every other Wednesday during the offseason.

The premiere episode, titled “Be Great,” can be viewed at the top of the page. Below you’ll find a brief recap of the moments of intrigue throughout the episode.

Heartbreak

It was a bold move to begin the episode with the heartbreak from the 2018 season. If you wanted me to guess the moment Chiefs fans least want to relive, the end of the AFC title game would be right back up there. The production framed it well, ending on Patrick Mahomes’ postgame press conference. In that conference he said the Chiefs could use this moment as a building point that could propel the success of the organization through many seasons to come.

Story behind the episode title

The title “Be Great” boils down to a philosophy of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. He believes in striving for greatness in every day life and in football.

“And so my thing is — every day be great,” Reid said. “It’s not comparing yourself to anything else, but maximize who you are as a person and as a player.”

Reid challenges his players to go that extra mile and put in the work to become great. He doesn’t want to see them just skating by, he wants to see them work to achieve greatness.

Pro Bowl

We got to see Mahomes interacting with Chargers coach Anthony Lynn and Hall of Fame Bills QB Jim Kelly. It’s pretty cool to see how respectful Mahomes is to other folks around the league. Getting to see how appreciative players like Eric Fisher and Anthony Sherman were to be voted to attend the Pro Bowl was also a touching moment.

Senior Bowl

Abruptly, things shift to the pre-draft process and the Senior Bowl. We don’t get to hear from anyone on the Chiefs, though. Instead we hear Jon Gruden speaking about all of the problems the Chiefs present to the Raiders. It makes you feel pretty good about where this team is currently at.

Draft room

The Chiefs had a visitor in the draft room, one of the many famous Chiefs superfans out there. Eric Stonestreet had an opportunity to spend a few hours in the draft room with general manager Brett Veach and company. He didn’t take it lightly either — he’s Chiefs Kingdom through and through.

This is a pinch me moment. I’m a life long diehard @Chiefs fan. To be invited into the draft room for a few hours meant the world to me. I honor these moments with respect and try to represent every fan the best way I can while remembering how lucky I am to b there #ChiefsKingdomhttps://t.co/MtyU4NEZKd

Pretty cool to see Stonestreet living out a dream and not taking it for granted. He came prepared, asked interesting questions and knew his stuff when they were watching the Senior Bowl practice tape.

Veach says his favorite part of the GM gig is being in the draft room with his fellow scouts. His scouts and personnel staff also happen to be some of his best friends because they’ve been working together for six years. He explained that no matter the shouting matches they all get into on prospects, everyone in his room is in it for the right reasons, which is to make the Chiefs a better football team.

Spags

The Chiefs have a new defensive coordinator this season. These clips didn’t reveal much new information as they’d already been published when Steve Spagnuolo first joined the team. He talked about the symbiotic nature of coaching and personnel. He also seemed pretty pleased with how the Chiefs do their personnel work.

Honey Badger

Tyrann Mathieu is introduced as the Chiefs’ new Swiss army knife on defense. He’s a leader and a game changer, but he also carries something else with him, according to Reid.

“When you have a nickname in the National Football League and players believe in you, they use that and tag you with that,” Reid said. “(It’s) like a badge of honor.”

Mathieu later explains his reasoning for coming to Kansas City. It seemed like after an interesting past two years in the NFL, Mathieu realized the type of organization he wanted to play for, and the Chiefs lined up with what he valued more than anywhere else.

‘Madden 20’

The producers of “The Franchise” couldn’t go too long without bringing things back to the MVP. After an incredible 2018 season, Patrick Mahomes is the “Madden NFL 20” cover athlete. They highlighted a photo shoot for the cover, and the photographer raved about Mahomes’ ability to relax. That cool nature that Mahomes has shows up on game day as well.

The 101 Awards

Mitch Holthus introduced Mahomes, who spoke at the 101 Awards. I found what Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy had to say much more profound, though. He talked about how they’d seen Mahomes do the no-look passes and that type of stuff when he was running the scout team for the Chiefs in 2017. They knew about some of this stuff ahead of time, but Mahomes always seems to have another trick up his sleeve.

“I recall when he threw the left-handed pass against Denver,” Bieniemy began. “I remember Coach Reid gives me the play, I’m sending in the play after I get the play. I look over at Coach Reid and say, ‘Damn, did he just throw that with his left hand?’ And those are the things where you just sit back you’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re at the playground, it’s time to ball now! This is some fun stuff.'”

Mahomes makes things fun for his teammates and the staff with some of these crazy plays. It’s a big time energy builder too, so hopefully he can keep it up during the 2019 season.

Next episode …

The Chiefs head to the 2019 NFL Scouting Combine in the second episode, which will air June 12. They cover the Frank Clark trade. They also tease Eric Bieniemy’s comparison for Mecole Hardman, which is former Bengals wide receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson.

Email

Like this article?

Sign up for the Chiefs Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning

An error has occured

Please re-enter your email address.

Thanks for signing up!

You'll now receive the top Chiefs Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.